Libel and Slander

News about Libel and Slander, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Nov. 27, 2014

Federal Judge Richard H Kyle rejects request from Taya Kyle, widow of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, to order new trial or set aside jury's verdict in defamation suit filed by former Minnesota Gov Jesse Ventura $1.8 million over contents of Chris Kyle's book American Sniper. MORE

Oct. 10, 2014

Japan protests filing of charges against Japanese journalist Tatsuya Kato, former Seoul bureau chief for Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun, in Seoul; South Korean prosecutors have charged Kato with defaming South Korean Pres Park Geun-hye. MORE

Oct. 9, 2014

South Korean prosecutors indict Japanese journalist Tatsuya Kato on charges he defamed South Korea’s Pres Park Geun-hye by reporting rumors that she was absent for seven hours during the April ferry disaster because she was with a man. MORE

Sep. 23, 2014

Four defamation cases in Indonesia have rekindled national debate about 2008 electronic information law under which offenders can be imprisoned for up to six years; law is widely considered blemish on country's mostly successful transition from authoritarian state to robust democracy. MORE

Jul. 30, 2014

Minnesota jury sides with Jesse Ventura, wrestler-turned-politician-turned-television-host, finding that he was defamed by author Chris Kyle and calls for award of more than $1.8 million; in 2012; Ventura sued former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who died in 2013, saying his book American Sniper included passages about Ventura that were false and defamatory. MORE

Jul. 19, 2014

New York State Supreme Court Judge Anil C Singh dismisses much of defamation suit brought by architect John B Wender, who claims that former lover Louise Silberling is the author of anonymous and withering postings about him online. MORE

Jul. 15, 2014

Lawyers defending estate of author Chris Kyle in defamation suit filed by former Minnesota Gov Jesse Ventura over Kyle's best-selling book American Sniper present Minnesota jury with audio and video clips, as well as book excerpts, bringing to light Ventura's controversial past. MORE

Jul. 12, 2014

Former Minnesota governor and pro-wrestler Jesse Ventura testifies in defamation suit he brought against estate of author Chris Kyle, former SEAL member who alluded to Ventura in his book, American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in US Military History; Ventura defends his military career, which he feels was besmirched by Kyle. MORE

Jul. 9, 2014

Former Minnesota Gov Jesse Ventura attends first day of jury selection in his defamation lawsuit against estate of author Chris Kyle, former Navy SEALS member who alluded to Ventura in book American Sniper; case is likely to test the higher legal standard a public figure must meet to prove defamation and is complicated by Kyle's death in 2013. MORE

May. 22, 2014

Former Delhi chief executive Arvind Kejriwal is jailed after refusing to pay a bail bond of around $171; is charged with defamation after making accusations of corruption against Nitin Gadkari, former chief of India's Bharatiya Janata Party. MORE

Apr. 23, 2014

Moscow court rules that prominent Russian opposition figure Aleksei A Navalny has libeled governing-party politician Alexei Lisovenko, fining him about $8,400; ruling could reinstate Navalny's suspended sentence from previous conviction, landing him in prison as he awaits trial in a third case. MORE

Mar. 9, 2014

Federal Judge Vanessa L Bryant rules that Michael C Skakel's libel claim can proceed against television personality Nancy Grace and her associates over comments made on her current affairs show that falsely suggested DNA evidence tied him to Martha Moxley's 1975 murder. MORE

Feb. 26, 2014

Jim Dwyer About New York column cites libel lawsuit playwright David Bar Katz filed against the National Enquirer for article that made false claims about his relationship to actor Philip Seymour Hoffman; notes as part of the settlement for suit, tabloid and its publisher will fund the American Playwriting Foundation, founded by Katz, as well as an annual prize for unproduced plays. MORE

Jan. 12, 2014

Alabama conspiracy blogger Roger Shuler's accusatory posts have earned him many enemies, but defamation suit that led to his incarceration since Oct 2013 is raising questions about free speech. MORE

Jan. 6, 2014

Jill Kelley, whose name was released in connection with scandal that toppled Central Intelligence Agency chief David H Petraeus, has filed suit against federal government for damages and a formal apology; Kelley says suit is aimed at restoring her reputation and to protect others from similar violations of privacy. MORE

Jan. 2, 2014

Michael C Skakel initiated libel suit against television personality Nancy Grace while he was serving sentence for 1975 murder of Greenwich, Conn neighbor Martha Moxley; civil complaint charged that Grace wrongly asserted in broadcast that Skakel's DNA had been found near murder site; while Grace's attorneys contended that Skakel had no reputation to preserve, recent overturning of Skakel's conviction may change standing of suit. MORE

Oct. 1, 2013

Casino owner and Republican donor Sheldon G Adelson loses $60 million libel lawsuit in which he said National Jewish Democratic Council, spread false accusation that he had condoned prostitution in his Macau casinos. MORE

Aug. 2, 2013

A federal judge has dismissed a libel complaint against The New Yorker magazine for an article it published about a forensic art expert. MORE

Jun. 23, 2013

Long drawn-out libel case in Washington State Supreme Court offers rare glimpse into inner life of Vietnamese Americans; Norman Le went public with his assertion that Duc Tan was a communist sympathizer in Vietnam before coming to the United States, and Tan filed suit in 2004 for defamation, rare occurrence as disputes are usually hashed out internally in Vietnamese-American communities. MORE

Apr. 26, 2013

England's new law strengthens position of people sued for libel; claimants now wanting to sue defendants who do not live in Europe will have to prove that England is most appropriate place for case, putting end to most cases of so-called libel tourism; law applies only to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have different systems. MORE

Jan. 9, 2013

Douglas Kennedy, son of Robert F Kennedy, is countersuing two nurses for defamation and malicious prosecution after he was acquitted of child endangerment and harassment charges stemming from a maternity ward scuffle in Mt Kisco, NY. MORE

Dec. 27, 2012

Four children of influential former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani are suing a lawmaker allied to the current president for describing their family as a corrupt 'octopus'; conflict has rekindled bitterness between country's conservative and moderates. MORE

Nov. 16, 2012

Alistair McAlpine, former British politician who was wrongly implicated in child sexual abuse by the British Broadcasting Corporation, has reached out-of-court settlement of about $295,000 with broadcaster. MORE

Sep. 20, 2012

Charles M Kavanagh, once-prominent Roman Catholic monsignor who was removed from the priesthood in 2010 for sexual abuse of a minor, files a federal lawsuit against the New York Archdiocese, claiming he had been libeled in a church statement. MORE

Sep. 19, 2012

Bettina Wulff, wife of former German Pres Christian Wulff, files a lawsuit against Google over autocomplete suggestions that appear when her name is typed into the search engine; some of the suggested phrases that appear relate to rumors, begun in 2006, that Wulff once worked as an escort. MORE

Sep. 11, 2012

Jury awards casino mogul Steve Wynn $20 million in his slander case against Joe Francis, founder of entertainment brand Girls Gone Wild, who claimed Wynn threatened to kill him over a gambling debt. MORE

Aug. 17, 2012

Jury awards former University of Michigan student body president Christopher Armstrong $4.5 million in his lawsuit against former Michigan assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell, who leveled an anti-gay attack toward Armstrong in a blog. MORE

Jul. 13, 2012

NFL files a grievance with the players' union asking New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma to drop his defamation lawsuit against commissioner Roger Goodell. MORE

Jun. 14, 2012

Zhang Ziyi, one of China’s most famous actresses, files a libel suit against two prominent Hong Kong news organizations over articles saying she was paid to have sex with Bo Xilai, the deposed Communist Party official MORE

Jun. 3, 2012

Ginia Bellafante Big City column comments on recent ruling by New York State Appellate Diviision that effectively strips the word 'gay' of any derogatory connotation, erasing decades of rulings that treated inflammatory descriptions of sexual orientation as defamation; says decision reflects the ideas and opinions of an increasingly enlightened citizenry, as well as the evolving etymology of the term gay itself. MORE

Jun. 1, 2012

Justice Thomas E Mercure of New York State Appellate Division rules that it is no longer slander or defamation to falsely say that someone is gay; says earlier rulings were based on a false premise that homosexuality is shameful, an idea no longer consistent with public policy; decision sets new case law for New York and could go to a definitive ruling in state's Court of Appeals. MORE

Feb. 8, 2012

Ecuadorean court orders journalists Juan Carlos Calderon and Cristian Zurita to pay $1 million each to President Rafael Correa after finding them guilty of defamation. MORE

Dec. 12, 2011

David Carr The Media Equation column examines defamation suit by businessman Kevin D Padrick against blogger Crystal Cox, in which jury awarded Padrick $2.5 million after a judge threw out most of his claims against her, on the ground that her comments were so outrageous that they would not be taken as real; asserts what seemed example of rich businessman using power of courts to silence his critic was actually case of a blogger using the Web to decimate the reputation of someone who did not seem to deserve it. MORE

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Prosecutors indicted a Japanese journalist on charges he defamed South Korea’s president by reporting rumors that she was absent for seven hours during the April ferry disaster because she was with a man.

Lawyers defending the estate of a former member of the Navy SEALs in a defamation case filed by the former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura played audio and video clips of Mr. Ventura and read quotes from his books for jurors.